There is limited evidence on what drives teachers to change their teaching practices. Using primary qualitative data from 78 Zambian education personnel from the school to the provincial level, we combine qualitative thematic analysis with an unsupervised machine-learning technique (topic modeling) to identify drivers of pedagogical shifts. We…

Teacher educators are charged with supporting adult learners as they prepare to collaborate with diverse families and colleagues. In this research, we examined how a cohort of teacher candidates (N = 29) developed over a semester in their understanding, dispositions, and knowledge of strategies for partnership through the "dilemmas"…

Past educational reforms have failed because they didn't meet teachers where they were. They expected major changes in practices that may have been unrealistic for many teachers even under ideal professional learning conditions. Instead of promoting broad scale changes, improvement may be more likely if they are composed of small yet powerful…

Our students will continue to be confronted with many environment and sustainability issues during their lifetimes because they are unpredictable, serious and complex by nature. These issues challenge not just our technologies but our universities and educational institutions, values and way of living and interaction. Competency-based education…

A model solution to a proof question on an examination is explored and subjected to a detailed analysis in terms of Toulmin's scheme of argumentation. In doing so, the ways in which the scheme has been variously used in the mathematics education and philosophical literature are contrasted. The analysis raises a number of issues concerning the…

We consider two complementary aspects of mathematical skills, i.e. "procedural fluency" and "conceptual understanding," from a point of view that is related to modern e-learning environments and computer-based assessment. Pedagogical background of teaching mathematics is discussed, and it is proposed that the traditional book…

In early November 2013, the authors started talking about visiting the Hurley School, a dual-language school in Boston, Massachusetts. The Hurley School had spent considerable time transitioning to the Common Core State Standards on literacy, but little time addressing the shifts in math. They worried that math classes were no longer rigorous…

Debates in education are often polarised by those who want students to be firmly told what they should take on board, and those who insist individuals learn best if they were liberated from all forms of collective arrangement (such as an education authority). Some politicians even fluctuate between the two sets of views without any underlying…

For the fortieth time, the Research and Theory Division of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) is sponsoring the publication of these Proceedings. Papers published in this volume were presented at the annual AECT Convention in Jacksonville, Florida. The Proceedings of AECT's Convention are published in two volumes.…

This guidance report focuses on the teaching of mathematics to pupils in Key Stages 2 and 3. It is not intended to provide a comprehensive guide to mathematics teaching. We have made recommendations where there are research findings that schools can use to make a significant difference to pupils' learning, and have focused on the questions that…

Despite it being the second decade of the 21st century, there still exists a range of definitions of what a 21st century learning environment is. This can be troublesome for teacher educators as we strive to prepare teachers for environments we can't clearly describe. In order to describe a 21st century learning environment, we developed an IC Map…

In this article, the authors discuss how educators can engage students in real world learning using their academic knowledge and technical skills. They describe how school districts have discovered that the world of robotics can help students use technical skills to solve simulated problems found in the real world, while understanding the…

Watch one of the Japan videos from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS)--more specifically, mathematics video 3 on solving inequalities1--and you'll see that after giving his students a word problem to solve, the 8th grade math teacher strolls among the students' desks for almost 15 minutes, leaning over to see what…

Despite students' interest in informational text, it has played second fiddle in literacy instruction for years. Now, though, nonfiction is getting its turn in the spotlight. The Common Core State Standards require that students become thoughtful consumers of complex, informative texts--taking them beyond the realm of dry textbooks and…

Recent years have witnessed a growing interest in interdisciplinary teaching and learning in the elementary grades. Teachers are increasingly looking for ways to help their students integrate literacy instruction with content area learning. This article highlights some of the similarities between reading comprehension and mathematical…